KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 8): Practice Note 17 (PN17) company TH Heavy Engineering Bhd, which will be delisted from Bursa Malaysia, is seeking to collaborate with Chinese shipbuilder LIREN Marine Technology Co Ltd to jointly bid for the construction of eight units of the Royal Malaysian Navy’s second batch of Littoral Mission ships.

For the purpose, THHE on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with APO Integrated Services Sdn Bhd (APO-IS), which is an exclusive representative of LIREN for the collaboration.

LIREN, according to THHE, owns a shipper in Foshan, Guandong, southern China. “The MoU allows the company and APO-IS to discuss, explore and agree on the terms of the joint venture to jointly bid for the project and to outline the terms in relation to the joint venture agreement,” said THHE.

The JV between LIREN and THHE entails a 60:40 shareholding. The MoU will also iron out a proposed capital contribution of US$10 million by LIREN for the project via a private placement exercise.

The contract for the first batch of six littoral combat ships was awarded by the government to Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd, a unit of Boustead Holdings Bhd, back in 2014 for RM9 billion. Amid delays, the third ship was delivered to the navy in China on Sept 14 this year.

Shares of THHE were up 0.05 sen to one sen, valuing the loss-making company at RM16.66 million.